Part 16

National advertisers, up to the present time, have paid considerably more attention to the heroines than the heroes. Possibly it is because it is much easier to appeal to the women, but the odds should be more balanced. Tobacco, hosiery and sporting-goods manufacturers are to name just three kinds of advertisers who could employ a prominent male player to advantage.

Why not name the next new branded article you put on the market after a motion-picture star? I happen to have advance information of a cigar manufacturer who has christened a new cigar after King Baggot. I understand, too, that Lillian Walker, Edward Earle, Leah Baird and Eleanor Woodruff are open to receive offers.

How can the photoplayers be approached? In the first place, a player can not secure too much publicity, and if he neglects this important factor he loses much of his popularity.

Great as is a motion-picture player’s need for publicity, he will seldom allow his name to be exploited by an advertiser without adequate remuneration, as he feels that he, too, should reap some of the financial benefit.

XXVIII.

BOOSTING YOUR BUSINESS WITH AN ADVERTISING MOTION PICTURE

Are you a storekeeper who would blazon the path of originality, yet would not object to the increased outlay?

The advertising powers of the motion picture have been fully realized by the large manufacturers of this country, but the average retailer has confined himself to the slide.

With a film, however, you can cause a small-sized sensation in your town, for folks will look upon your effort as a home product. You can not, of course, live upon publicity, and the true test will be the extra amount of business it brings. Once the interest of people is aroused, there can be no doubt concerning the latter.

The most suitable kind of photoplay is the comedy. You may have a commercial motion-picture photographer located near by, in which case you can avail yourself of his services. Failing this, however, there are a number of concerns who do nothing else but produce films for commercial purposes.

If you have the film produced along economical lines, you should get the negative produced and developed for an inclusive charge not exceeding seventy-five cents per foot. A useful length is from two to five hundred feet. Then you will want a positive, which will cost you ten cents per foot.

In regard to the actual producing of the photoplay, I strongly advise you to have some scenes taken amid familiar local landscapes. You might persuade members of the local dramatic society to attend to the acting end. It would improve the play if you could manage to introduce well-known local citizens. This will save you the expense of having to hire regular motion-picture actors, and the folks who see the film will not be critical as to the technical defects. The concern you engage to put on the picture will send along a capable director, who will knock the players into passable shape.

Considerable additional expense is involved in the use of interiors, such as a store, house or office building. These have to be specially erected in the studio and plenty of electric light used for photographic purposes, so keep to outdoor scenes. It can easily be done by exercising a little ingenuity. For instance, instead of arranging certain action to take place inside your store, you can get it over equally effective by arranging for it to occur outside your premises.

For economy’s sake, you need only one copy of the positive in circulation. Now, if you approach local motion-picture exhibitors in the right spirit, they may not demand a fee for showing your advertising motion picture, as they realize too well the value of anything with a local appeal. You should arrange with the leading theater to have first run of the photoplay, say, for a week, after which you can loan it to the next on the waiting-list, until all have been covered.

Plenty of newspaper publicity is yours, too, if you invite the local press to be present at the producing of the film, and also when it is about to be released for public exhibition.

XXIX.

PULLING MOVIE-SLIDE ADVERTISING OUT OF THE RUT

From a study of the motion-picture screens up and down the country, I have come to the conclusion that the average dealer does not take the trouble to get the fullest possible value out of his investment.

The majority of the announcements are merely plain business notices that simply bore the spectator who has the doubtful pleasure of sitting them through. They do, in fact, remind one only too strongly of the early days of newspaper advertising, when every advertiser thought it sufficient to have a formal announcement, unchanged from year in to year out. Few dealers now would think of spending good money in newspaper publicity in such a hackneyed and uninteresting fashion, because they are well aware that their ad. has to compete with many others, and it is only the attractively prepared ones that command a hearing.

The same methods must be applied to movie-screen advertising, if it is to be pulled out of the rut. There was a period when audiences were attracted by anything that resembled a picture. But these days are gone and buried, and the fans are only satisfied with a program of the best photoplays. This being the case, it goes without saying that they expect the same of the efforts to hold their attention during the reels. You can not really expect the ad. appeals to sink in otherwise.

Although you would dismiss the idea of having a short commercial film of your own made on the grounds of expense, much remains to be done in order to make slide advertising interesting to picture patrons rather than tiring them, as it does at present. It is going to cost you a little more money and effort, but your slide will be distinctive and will stand out above the rest. Your reward will be increased results.

Just bear in mind, too, that you haven’t merely got to have them look at your slide, but arouse them to action. This can be done by having prepared a serial story in picture form on similar lines to the comic supplements in the metropolitan Sunday journals. Have a series of slides made of it, showing one each day until the story is told. A few days before putting it on the screen of the local movie show, get the operator to throw on a rough slide to this effect: “Watch out for the story, ‘The Good Smith’s Meat Did for the White Family.’” This applies to a butcher, but a story can be written around every trade. There are firms who specialize in this kind of work. This plan has been attended with excellent results wherever tried out.

If, by ingenuity, you can make the picture on the slide move, so much the better. A London manufacturer boosted his bottled beer by showing the slide of a dog drinking his master’s beer when he was out of the room. Every time the dog lapped up the dinner stout, the audiences could not refrain from laughing heartily.

One way by which to get on good terms with the motion-picture exhibitor is to offer a liberal sample of your special line to the first hundred attending the performance on the morrow. This allows a direct appeal to be presented, and a Brooklyn grocery store has made good in drawing marked attention to their own brand of tea.

Another way to make the fans laugh is to have a witty verse written alongside an appropriate picture. I forget the actual verse of it, but a Brooklyn hand laundry draws the distinction between the ape days, when clean laundry was not necessary, and the vital importance to-day.

Slide advertising puts one over the press in securing the concentration of readers. Surely, then, it is worth while paying more attention to this excellent medium.

XXX.

MAINTAINING THE INTEREST IN SLIDE ADVERTISING